http://www.mapplethorpe.org/portfolios/Robert Mapplethorpe was a highly stylized photographer from the 1970's. He shot mostly in medium format and liked to shoot pictures of men and flowers. He liked interesting and organic forms which is why these were his favorite subjects. The human body has so many interesting valleys, curves, shadows, and confusing components. He also liked to exaggerate the form of his subjects with extreme high contrast. Most of his work makes you question what you are looking at, or why he would want to photograph something the way that he did. He really enjoyed to take photographs of things that were unexpected, or had never been photographed. With that beings said, he applied this shocking or never before seen technique to the familiar human body form, to produce a very unique and innovative style for the time.
The photo that i choose to recreate was Robert Mapplethorpe"s self portrait. It is a very interesting picture of robert since he is almost entirely absent from the frame besides where his body comes in from the the very corner of the frame. I wanted to do a self portrait and was very attracted to the white background in his portrait. I also felt like i had similar hair and body type to robert, which is another reason i choose to attempt this photo. My background was very limited in size, so i had to take the photos much closer then i would have liked. I tried to capture how Mapplethorpe used high contrast lighting and the use of the interesting form of the body as subject
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